[faustus77]

Mr Bean
Your post No 949.
Axis has been the best performing ELSS in the last 2/3 years.
I bought, for my daughter, ICICI Focused Blue Chip on 19/3/2012 and as on 8/1/2016 has given me an annual return of 16.33%.
However in Nov 2015 and in Jan 2016 I opted for their Value Discovery Fund.
Other than these two, I invested in Tata Balanced Fund and Birls SL Frontline Equity Fund.
Any views ?
Regards

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by faustus77

However in Nov 2015 and in Jan 2016 I opted for their Value Discovery Fund.

With its change of name from "ICICI Discovery" to "ICICI Value Discovery", it is no longer a mid cap pure-play. In line with this change, it has re-tuned its portfolio and invests a major portion (around 60%) in large caps. As such, it should be considered a multi cap and Value Research which has now switched to monthly categorization correctly reflects this even though other publications still categorize it as mid cap.

[pradkumar]

Hi,

Thank you for your recommendations. Can you suggest a few good long term debt funds? I have bought equity funds all my life and am clueless about debt funds. I am getting old and need to look at debt funds also :-).

Thank you,

Pradeep

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

All good choices.

ICICI Pru Focused Bluechip has AUM just shy of 10,000 crores which is the big league for Indian MFs. Over the past year or two, it has underperformed a tad and it has lost its investment objective mentioned in its name -- that of focusing on a few select companies -- It is now so big that it can no longer invest in a few. Sometimes I wonder whether I should move to SBI Magnum, but then that fund goes through its own ups and downs.

Mirae is a South Korean fund and they have one of the few gems in the mid cap space. Astonishingly, this fund has lower beta than their flagship India Opportunities fund which invests mostly in large caps.

Many overlook the smaller cap category, but this is the one that gives outsized returns. Here, BNP Paribas and DSPBR Microcap (Bear in mind the latter is more into small cap and therefore more risky) can be good choices as well.

2016 looks like a rocky year, so you should be ready for some loss. SIPs would be the best way to build a base and once you do that and have a notional profit, you can also invest lump sums once in a while. As usual, go only for direct plans.

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by pradkumar

Thank you for your recommendations. Can you suggest a few good long term debt funds? I have bought equity funds all my life and am clueless about debt funds. I am getting old and need to look at debt funds also :-).

Please note that I did not recommend any MF. I was merely commenting on @Latheesh's post and the funds HE had chosen. MFs are for the long term and I strongly believe that it has to be YOUR decision to select one as you would not have the conviction to stay put otherwise.

Regarding debt, do you max out your EPF? If so, you should consider that as the debt portion of your overall portfolio. Given the employer contribution and the tax benefits, this is the single best way to get the highest return on debt. Even with a PF interest rate of 8.75% (2015) and Zero employer contribution, your real rate of interest would be around 11% as PF deductions are pre-tax. Other than that I do not have much to add as I do not invest in debt MFs and I am in the same boat as you.

[vnabhi]

I was just about to invest a few lakhs in mutual funds, but the below advisory scared the wits out of me:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/...rbs-economists

Any clues from anybody would be of great help. I am now contemplating pulling out all my current investments in the stock market.

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I was just about to invest a few lakhs in mutual funds, but the below advisory scared the wits out of me

Shows you the importance of SIPs, or STPs in your case.

When the Sensex fell almost 13% in a single day in 1992 due to the Harshad Mehta scam exposed by Sucheta Dalal (I met her a few months later after she was no longer with the newly launched ET), people exited the stock markets like rats deserting a sinking ship. The Sensex was around 3,800 after the fall and no one thought it would ever get to 5,000 and yet here we are shy of 25,000.

In this case, the fall seems to be due to extraneous factors which have little bearing on the India story.

[deepv]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

http://www.theguardian.com/business/...rbs-economists

Any clues from anybody would be of great help. I am now contemplating pulling out all my current investments in the stock market.

This is pertinent to direct investments in stock markets wherein one should have conviction in the stocks they have invested and their long term potential/value.

However the story is different with MFs, the fund managers should be doing the same on your behalf.
If you want to invest in MFs, it would suggestible to stagger the amount to over (say) a year and invest in value oriented MFs (instead of growth oriented which tend to be more risky).
This process with give you chance invest gradually in falling market.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by deepv

This is pertinent to direct investments in stock markets wherein one should have conviction in the stocks they have invested and their long term potential/value.

However the story is different with MFs, the fund managers should be doing the same on your behalf.

MF or Direct if the market is falling so will the MFs. The manager can hopefully reduce the damage, by his expertise, no more.

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Any clues from anybody would be of great help. I am now contemplating pulling out all my current investments in the stock market.

Analysts always come with such predictions.

In my opinion, your plan to invest huge sum should be avoided. You may invest the sum in 4-5 instalments.

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I was just about to invest a few lakhs in mutual funds, but the below advisory scared the wits out of me:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/...rbs-economists

Any clues from anybody would be of great help. I am now contemplating pulling out all my current investments in the stock market.

Funny thing is, I too read the same article and similarly gave a hard thought for pulling out from all equity oriented funds. Then a thought came to my mind. Even in 2008, no expert predicted the huge downfall. Some might have advised the caution but nobody was damn sure of the magnitude. So you yourself should decide how much weight should you give to these "experts" opinion.

[pradkumar]

Hi,

I have been working for almost 25 years now. This means that I have maxed out my EPF.

I don't get any 80C benefits with the PF and principal from home loan taking care of the 1.5 lakh limit. So PPF probably doesn't make sense without tax benefits.

Coming to debt funds, I do have a SIP with ICICI Prudential Long Term - Regular Plan - Growth for the past one year. I do not like to put all eggs into one fund house and would like to take up another long term debt fund with another fund house. That is why I asked you.

I also have a SIP with a balanced fund -- HDFC Balanced, which is approx. 30% non-equity.

Thanks,

Pradeep

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

Please note that I did not recommend any MF. I was merely commenting on@Latheesh's post and the funds HE had chosen. MFs are for the long term and I strongly believe that it has to be YOUR decision to select one as you would not have the conviction to stay put otherwise.

Regarding debt, do you max out your EPF? If so, you should consider that as the debt portion of your overall portfolio. Given the employer contribution and the tax benefits, this is the single best way to get the highest return on debt. Even with a PF interest rate of 8.75% (2015) and Zero employer contribution, your real rate of interest would be around 11% as PF deductions are pre-tax. Other than that I do not have much to add as I do not invest in debt MFs and I am in the same boat as you.

[searacer932]

All,

I am quite new to MF. I am thinking of doing the SIP way. I am thinking long term (>5 years) and at the moment I am thinking of only large caps. I have shortlisted the following.

1.SBI Magnum Equity Fund
2.DWS Alpha Equity Fund
3.UTI Mastershare Fund
4.Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund
5.Kotak 50 Regular Plan

Planning to put 1K in each of the above. I don't seem to be KYC compliant as per the KARVY web-site. Hence looking do the initial set up via fundsindia and then looking to go for direct plan with the mutual fund house itself.

Any comments on this please?

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by searacer932

All,

I am quite new to MF. I am thinking of doing the SIP way. I am thinking long term (>5 years) and at the moment I am thinking of only large caps. I have shortlisted the following.

I think you have selected too many funds for the proposed investment amount you can go with one large cap fund like ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund.

Other experts can comment more on this.

[searacer932]

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

I think you have selected too many funds for the proposed investment amount you can go with one large cap fund like ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund.

Other experts can comment more on this.

Thanks. It looks to be a good fund as well. I did not have it in my shortlist as I was looking at performance of the last 10 years.

[murugaveln]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I hope you are falling foul of the AIR rule, to avoid this invest / switch in tranches of under 2l.

Don't MF houses have to provide details of investors investing 2L or more in a FY? Then even if we invest in tranches of under 2L, won't they get reported if the total amount is more than 2L?
Also is the threshold for investing in a fund or a fund house (say 1.5L each in 2 funds of a fund house)?